


keep saying yes

by theseourbodies



Category: due South
Genre: Mythology - Freeform, Other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-27
Updated: 2017-01-27
Packaged: 2018-09-20 05:42:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 601
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9478154
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/theseourbodies/pseuds/theseourbodies
Summary: they meet, but things are not as they were.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Feedback welcome. 
> 
> Find me at wecouldbeheroes-loverswecouldbe.tumblr.com

Coyote yawns so wide his jaw cracks, white teeth clear in the night. He is hungry, but that is nothing new. 

Wolf sits across from him, placid, watchful. Loneliness has taught him the value of stillness; for all that that loneliness has taken from him, Coyote thinks that is the least the world owes him. 

-You are not speaking to me.

-That is not fair. I am simply not talking. It is not the same thing.

In the dark, Coyote's eyes glint. His fingers pick restlessly at his sleeves, dissatisfied with the lay of the fabric over his long arms. Wolf lays his palms flat against strong thighs; Coyote ignores the hint. 

-You are angry. 

-I am not angry. 

Coyote bares his teeth and pretends he is smiling. 

-Fine. Tell me what you are. 

Wolf looks out into the night, eyes unseeing. His neck is exposed, pale and smooth. Coyote thinks about placing his square, blunt teeth there, staring with his own vision hazy. This, too, is nothing new. Loneliness has taught Coyote nothing but longing. 

-The night is cool. I am comfortable. 

-You are lying. 

In the moonlight, Wolf's eyes are strange and pale when they snap to Coyote's. The air between them suddenly snaps with cold; he can taste the chill. Coyote clutches the edge of the table they sit at with his blunt fingers and leans in closer. 

-You are lying. 

Wolf stares at him, cracking at his edges; there is helplessness there, where he does not want Coyote to see, and anger. He is lying. Coyote has always known. 

-Yes. Yes, I am angry. 

His voice is so soft, but Coyote is no fool. He leans in no further. 

-You would prefer me gone? 

-I would prefer you as you were. 

Coyote stands to stretch, pacing with gliding steps. Wolf watches him move, his stillness obvious now, forced. 

-I am as I was.

-You are not. 

-That is what you believe, but Coyote is Coyote no matter what face he wears.

-No. I know already that is not the truth. 

One hand now resting flat on the table between them, Wolf rises, slowly. Helplessness settles strangely on his face, on his body. Coyote sees it in the slope of his shoulders, the clench of his hands. He wills himself to be unmoved, to look away from the vulnerability of Wolf's lax fingers to focus on his exposed face. It, as always, is difficult. 

-It is the truth. I am sorry you are angry. I am not sorry it has been done. 

Wolf's teeth are blunt, too, and no less terrible and white as he bares them. 

-Yes, I remember. That is the way of all your comings and goings. 

They pause, watching one another. Coyote feels the night close around them, his time, but exhaustion eats at him abruptly, like maggots. 

-That is the way of it. 

Wolf nods to himself. His eyes in the moonlight are unfamiliar-seeming and terrible.

-Very well.

-Yes. 

Without another word, Wolf strides out of the apartment, leaving Coyote and his hunger and his loneliness behind him. Coyote lets him go. 

Again, this is nothing new, he thinks to himself, and sits silent in moonlight, fidgeting with the edges of his sleeves, the seam of his worn pants leg, and smoothes down his soft hair. We have been here before, he thinks at the space that Wolf has left behind. You have loved me as I was, you will love me as I am. Coyote always knows.

It is a long time before he finally takes his loneliness to bed and sleeps.

**Author's Note:**

> If you are interested in the actual Coyote/Trickster mythology (in this case, the mythology specific to the tribes of the American Southwest), I highly recommend this resource: 
> 
> http://www.native-languages.org/southwest-coyote.htm
> 
> which provides links to stories and book recommendations for future reading. 
> 
> Title taken from Richard Siken's _War of the Foxes_ :
> 
>  
> 
> _You cannot have an opponent if you keep saying yes._


End file.
